The Miraculous
Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>
From: Martin M Overfield
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000
The Miraculous
Sometimes people have become enamored with the miraculous. It would
seem that many religious people of our day are using the miraculous as a
full-proof way of knowing that a person, church, or message is of God.
The Bible is loaded with the miraculous, especially in the ministry of
Jesus Christ our Saviour and in the ministries of the apostles. However,
the Bible makes it clear that not all who seem to work miracles are of God.
It also shows us that the SUBSTANCE of the message and the CHARACTER of the
messenger are of greater importance than miracles.
In Deuteronomy 13:1-3, we read " If there arise among you a prophet, or
a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the
wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after
other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not
hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the
LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with
all your heart and with all your soul."
Here we see that the substance of the message is extremely important.
Many today are following after false gods, because they put too much stock
in the miraculous and not enough stock in the revealed Word of God!
Again, in John 10:41 & 42, the people realized that, though "John did no
miracle", all things that he said about Jesus were true! Because the
substance of John the Baptist's message was true, "many believed on him"
(Jesus) "there." Yet, Jesus testified (see Luke 7:24-28) that John the
Baptist was the greatest of the prophets, and "much more than a prophet".
John's message and character made him greater than all the other
prophets, even though he did no miracle. Do you realize that Jesus was
saying that John the Baptist was a greater prophet of God than even Elijah
and Elisha, who saw many miraculous things happen through their ministries?
Now, let us proceed with the idea of character. (See Matthew 7:15-23
for context.) "By their fruits ye shall know them." So said Jesus of the
false prophets. If they bring forth bad fruit, they are bad. If they bring
forth good fruit, they are good. Say, this is simple truth that is being
overlooked by many! Furthermore, Jesus said,
"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many
wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:
depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Notice that Jesus does NOT say,
"You are lying! You never did anything miraculous!" Nor does He say, "Okay,
that proves it! You MUST belong to Me, because you have done miraculous
things in my name!" No, he rather pronounces a judgment of eternal
separation from Him on the basis of CHARACTER, i.e. "ye that work iniquity."
In the book of Revelation (19:20, and elsewhere), the false prophet is
said to work miracles by which he deceives people. Only God knows all the
miraculous things that the false prophet will do; but the Word states that
he will call down fire from heaven, and will cause the image of the beast to
speak. All the while, he will be telling people to serve a false god, the
Antichrist, and his evil character will land him in the "lake of fire".
I would strongly urge people to test the prophets. Jesus said that in
the last days many would say, "Here is Christ!", but that we should not
listen. Hear again the words of Christ: "For there shall arise false
christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders;
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect"
(Matthew 24:24). We should rather "Look up" toward Heaven, where the true
Christ is at the right hand of the throne of God, for our "redemption
draweth nigh."(Luke 21:28)
Yours In Christ,
Martin Overfield
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